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FUNERAL ORATION 



ON THE DEATH OF 



HON. DANIEL WEBSTER 



DELIVERED AT A COMMEMORATION IN THE PRESBYTERIAN 
CHURCH, BALLSTON SPA, N. T., 



MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 8, 1852. 



By prof. AMASA McCOY. 



'^'' ^ -:■'...> 

'i>' ~ -<}<;•. 




BOSTON: 

C. C. p. MOODY. PRINTER, 52 WASHINGTON STREET. 

1853. 



E340 



PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 



The undersigned, having issued a pamphlet edition of the follow- 
ing Oration, for private circulation by an eminent merchant of this city, 
very frequent enquiries have been made of him for extra copies. 
These, together with the high commendation bestowed upon it by the 
most eminent friends of Mr, Webster, have induced the publication 
of this second edition. The New York Express, the first paper in 
which the discourse was printed, accompanied the report with these 
remarks : 

" We publish to-day a beautiful oration, delivered by Amasa McCoy, 
Esq., of Ballston Spa, N. Y., and for the past two years Professor of Logic 
and Rhetoric in the National Law School. The style of the orator in the 
delivery was faultless, and so riveted was the attention of the vast audience, 
that a pin might have been heard to fall in any part of the edifice during 
the pronouncing of the eulogy. Professor McCoy is yet a young man, and 
he has but to pursue the path he has marked out, to acquire a world-wide 
renown as an eloquent public speaker." — New York Express. 

It is an admirable oration. It will be read with deep gratification by all 
of Mr. Webster's countrj'men. —Hon. W. W. Seaton, Ed. Nat'l Intelligencer. 

A more sublime oration, a more splendid burst of eloquent eulogium, we 
never had the pleasure of perusing. — St. John (N. B.) Courier. 

I have no hesitation in saying, that I consider it the most able I have 
seen on this event, and well worthy the commendation bestowed upon it by 
the Express. His estimate of Webster's character and writings strikes me as 
being singularly feUcitous. — Rev. W. Ingraham Kip, D. D., of Albany. 

I have read the oration with great interest. It is a most vigorous and 
eloquent production. — Hm. Eohert C. Winthrop. 

After reading it amid incessant interruptions, I have laid it by for a 
leisure hour, with the sure promise of a rich intellectual treat. Professor 
McCoy has entered deeply into the great theme. — Hon. Edward Everett. 

I have re-perused Prof. McCoy's Funeral Oration on Mr. Webster 
With heightened interest and appreciation. I regard this discourse, on the 
whole, as the most adequate to the great subject which I have read. — Hon. 
Rufus Choate. 

Though these are but a part of the evidences of the favor with 
which the Oration has been regarded by those most competent to pro- 
nounce upon its merits, they are surely more than enough to warrant 
the publisher in believing, that in making it accessible to the public in a 
better form than it has yet appeared, he is adding, in his way, to the 
numerous tributes to the illustrious deceased, and administering to the 
gratification of his sorrowing countrymen. 

C. C. p. MOODY. 

52 Washington Steeet, Boston. 



ORATION. 



The tolling bells of twice ten thousand steeples 
proclaim that we have met with no ordinary loss. 
Populous and opulent cities, thousands of miles from 
each other, celebrate these obsequies with all that can 
engage the imagination, and impress the heart. Even in 
a retired village, which makes no pretensions to parade, 
and where there is nothing of magnificence, save the 
sombre pomp of nature herself, the citizens of Ballston 
Spa, without distinction of party ; the Board of Supervi- 
sors, representing every town in the County of Saratoga ; 
the members of the Ballston Institute, coming from 
different sections of the State ; the students of the 
National Law School, representing more than half the 
States of the Union ; have assembled, under these sable 
hangings, to join in the sublime lament which is now 
being sung by the nation. These expressions of public 
sorrow, however numerous and solemn, can be of no 
use, it is true, to the dead. But they may justly 
administer to the consolation of the living. To echo 
words once uttered by those lips, which because they 



are sealed in death, we are now convened : the tears 
which flow, and the honors that are paid, when the 
founders of the Republic die, give hope that the Repub- 
lic itself will be immortal. 

Daniel Webster, Secretary of State in the United 
States, died at his farm at Marshfield, on the morning of 
the 24th of October. Just ten days ago, his mortal 
remains were laid away in his family vault. At the 
time of his death he had passed, some nine months, the 
limit assigned by the Psalmist to mortal man. Yet had 
we never come to associate with him the idea of decay. 
The whole of this long period was filled up with busy 
and laborious days in the service of his country. He 
was born, he lived, he died, in a century and a country 
of Freedom. He first saw the light amid her mountain 
home, and he died where she lifts her radiant form to 
enjoy the ocean breeze. 

His death, since its occurrence, has engrossed the 
columns of the press; it has put the marts and the har- 
bors of commerce in mourning; it has been solemnly 
noticed by the bar and the bench in the Courts of 
Justice ; in the departments of State ; and in the man- 
sion of the Executive. And what bespeaks still more a 
public sense of calamity, it even stopped, and that within 
a week of the day of ballot, the whole machinery of a 
national election. 

Meantime, while we have been witnessing this first 
spontaneous outburst of sorrow, and while more elaborate 



and sumptuous expressions are but just beginning, these 
unwelcome tidings have crossed the Atlantic, and deep- 
ened the grief of a nation already, like ourselves, clothed 
in the habiliments of mourning. The event by this 
time has been noticed with honor in hundreds of English 
journals ; it has afflicted the members of the profession 
in the courts of Westminster; it has been mentioned on 
the floors of ParUament ; it has penetrated the cloisters 
of Oxford and Cambridge. And before the action yet 
to be taken by the State Legislatures, the Supreme 
Federal Judiciary, and the Houses of Congress; the 
intelligence, in the order of its course, will have carried 
grief to the heart of every lover of freedom in the 
nations of Europe ; and where less will be expressed 
than felt, because of the padlock on the lip of Liberty. 
So that, after all that has been done, and all that will be, 
that which will not be done, will redound most to the 
honor of the great American. 

The public journals have certainly laid the country 
under many obligations, by their incredible industry in 
collecting facts respecting this extraordinary life. By 
so doing they have not only contributed vastly to our 
edification, but I submit that every fresh particular only 
increases our respect for the character of the deceased. 
The colossal proportions of his intellect had become a 
proverb ; but the impression I think is now general, that 
great injustice has been done to the qualities of his heart. 
The tongue of scandal had been busy in bold affirmations 
respecting great frailties and infirmities. No reflecting 
man ever doubted that much of this was the invention of 



8 

political rancor, and a curious proneness there is to seek 
for weakness in the great. Whatever of this is true, no 
one should now seek to extenuate, out of regard to the 
influence of example. The ancient maxim, that nothing 
should be said of the dead but what is favorable, the 
better ethics of our time justly repudiates. History, 
when true to its mission, is a dread tribunal ; and while 
it will not allow the least injustice to the dead, it will 
not be unmindful of its duty to the living. In the 
mean time, it cannot be denied that many persons whose 
minds had been abused, are taken by surprise by the 
numerous and authentic evidences of the genial excel- 
lencies which gave warmth and coloring to his character. 
The nation had been so engrossed with the grandeur of 
his public career, that few were prepared for any such 
statement as that his greatness dilated when he entered 
the social circle. And it is fit in this temple of worship 
to invite those, if any such there be, who have assumed 
to use his name to give respectability to their own 
delinquencies, to ponder now upon some other things. 
Let them remember that vulgar infidelity never polluted 
his lips. That nothing ever escaped him in his public 
speeches, nothing in private conversation, disrespectful 
to the truths of Christianity. That he was a devout 
believer in divine Revelation. That he studied the 
scriptures more than many whose high vocation it is to 
expound them. That he was faithful in his attendance 
upon the services of the sanctuary. That the attributes 
of the Deity, as displayed in his works, overflowed his 
capacious nature with the enthusiasm of devotion. 



9 



And for my own part, I join with those who say that 
none of his great deeds in life give them such ideas of 
moral grandeur, as the manner of his death. I see him 
shake the Capitol in his wrath, when a violent hand is 
laid upon the Constitution ; and yet it does not affect 
me with such an elevated sense of human greatness, as 
to mark the meek serenity with which he suffers the 
pangs of death, and abides the good pleasure of his God. 
His implicit faith in the blood of Christ, his parting 
blessings upon his family and domestics, his unmurmur- 
ing resignation in the last mortal agony, — tell me, ye 
who minister at the altar, was not here enough to have 
suggested to the Christian poet all his sublime concep- 
tions of the chamber where the good man meets his fate ? 

When Mark Anthony appeared before the citizens of 
Rome, to pronounce his funeral oration over the dead 
body of Caesar, his first endeavor was to refute the 
principal accusation of Caesar's enemies. A grave charge 
has been preferred against the deceased whom we deplore, 
in connection with one of his last acts in the Senate, and 
which it is not to be concealed, in the minds of many, 
and of some before me, rests at this moment as a cloud 
upon his memory. The charge is now of over two years' 
standing. What men have urged and insisted upon 
again and again, becomes rooted and grounded in their 
very nature. The matter in question has become a part 
of that feeling, hardly less inveterate than religious 
bigotry, the spirit of party. How idle it would be to 
think of removing it, I am well enough persuaded ; but 
2 



10 



that the subject would be referred to on such an occasion 
might naturally be expected. I deem it expedient to 
touch upon it in very brief terms at this stage of my 
remarks. 

Some persons go as far as this. The Compromise 
Measures adopted by Congress in 1850, tended to per- 
petuate a great evil. Evil should not be done even to 
sustain the arch of the Union. To such persons I would 
say, what I may not now reason out, that there are 
numerous evils which are the natural consequences of 
society. But to disband society would be a greater evil. 
Whoever remains in society, then, acts upon the principle 
of choosing the least of evils. Society is held together 
only by mutual compromise. The science of governing, 
to a great extent, is but the science of expedients. The 
philosopher deals only in abstract truth, and may always 
be consistent with himself But between the theories 
and the practical action of legislators and rulers, there 
must sometimes be a variance. 

Such extreme gi'ound, how^ever, is probably occupied 
by no one present. You frankly admit, if you could 
believe that the Compromise measures were essential to 
the integrity of the Union, you would no longer condemn 
those who voted for them. But you hold that there 
was no danger of any section seceding; and I understand 
your chief ground of confidence is this. That secession 
would have been contrary to their own interests, I ask^ 
is it an unheard-of thing that men should act contrary 
to their own interests ? especially men of pride and 



11 



spirit, and most especially when they believe, or even 
imagine that any injustice is being done them ? Were 
there not thousands of men, as intelligent and as honest 
as yourselves, who did believe some such compromise 
necessary? And have not multitudes who then con- 
demned such legislation, since avowed their approval ? 
Was not the measure acquiesced in by hundreds of 
ministers of religion, whose learning and piety make 
them the objects of reverence ? Did a majority of both 
houses of Congress, did so many of their number, of 
patriotism hitherto above suspicion, walk in open day 
to the shambles of corruption, and trafiic away the 
accumulated honor of life ? Did Millard Fillmore do 
so ; did Henry Clay ; did Daniel Webster ? When 
Nullification was coiling its fatal folds around this body 
politic, entire fruit of the revolution, and just about to 
send to its extremities the icy chill of death, you need 
not be told whose mighty arm it was that slew the 
monster as with a battle axe. If you have writ your 
annals true, alone he did it. This great champion of public 
liberty, whose whole fame was associated with its defence, 
and who saw that many would now brand him as an apos- 
tate and traitor, do you believe that he was condemned 
also by his own conscience ? Have those who have 
been so unsparing of censure ever summed up the 
penalty he paid for taking this step ? Reproach, re- 
proach, from how many quarters ; with what bitterness ; 
and how long sustained ! And this from oldest friends, 
upon whom the heart had learned to lean for support. 
The stab of Brutus, you know, that was the unkindest 



12 



cut of all. If then, my friend and fellow-citizen, you 
cannot yet view this matter as I do, but must still insist 
in your heart, that he was guilty of a grievous fault, — 
at least, at least, you will not refuse to remember 
how grievously he hath answered it. And while no 
powers of persuasion can efface from your memory the 
single evil you have contended he did, that American 
heart within you, whose depths he has so often stirred 
as with the notes of battle and of victory, is surely too 
just and magnanimous to insist upon interring with his 
bones all that he ever did of good. 

In common with the whole country, fellow-citizens, 
you have frequently reviewed, since its termination, Mr. 
Webster's great career. If it had not occurred to you 
before, you must now be impressed with the fact, that 
of the many distinguished citizens of his day, few owed 
less to fortuitous circumstances. Mr. Webster was not a 
man whose fame grew up over night. He owed his 
eminence to no accident, no compromise of factions, no 
chance of battle, no freak of fortune. None of his 
influence was acquired by flattering the people, but only 
by serving them. He more than once opposed a farther 
introduction into the government of the popular ele- 
ment ; and in doing so, used the whole weight of his 
influence and talent. He not only repudiated the idea 
of a Democracy ; for that is dreamed of by no one. But 
he evidently had faith in nothing less than the repre- 
sentative Republic, with all its checks and balances, 
as framed by the fathers. He acquired none of his 



13 



distinction then, by introducing sweeping reforms in 
government. Indeed I undertake to say, that the most 
oreneral characteristic of that whole career which the 
country is now contemplating with so much reverence 
is that of the great conservator. He borrowed no honor 
from office, for his mere entry into it covered it with 
lustre forever; and whoever might be elevated to the 
Presidency, Webster still continued the most eminent 
citizen of the Eepublic. The explanation of Mr. Webster's 
fame consists simply, in wonderful native endowments, 
disciplined by the last severity of culture, and displayed 
in professional and public service. To eloquence, to 
law, to civil polity, he devoted more study than most 
public men to all united. If Buffon, as he said, owed 
ten or twelve volumes of his writings to his servant, 
who forced him to rise at six, — it would be interesting, 
if it could be ascertained, to know what proportion of 
Mr. Webster's greatness is ascribable to his having risen 
at four. 

The extinction of this great light afflicts no class more 
sorely than that scattered brotherhood who make up 
the republic of letters. In our part of that realm he was 
chief. No other man in this country ever exercised in 
so large a measure that sway over the human mind which 
belongs to literature. His supremacy over men was in 
proportion as they were educated. In Boston he reigned 
in all the sovereignty of reason. Had this whole country 
been made up of Bostons 



14 



More than any other American of his day, more than 
any Englishman, Mr. Webster's style was chaste, lucid, 
and perspicuous. Every sentence was a crystal. He 
scattered among the people no ambiguous words. When 
Webster had spoken, you might differ from him indeed ; 
but you knew his meaning. Whatever he touched, he 
not only adorned, but he shed over it a perpetual light. 
Such was the literary excellence of Mr. Webster's speech, 
that its influence did not cease with its delivery. There 
was always a charm over the printed report, that 
attracted and captivated innumerable readers. There 
were men of his day, and Mr. Clay was one of them, who 
exercised a more talismanic sway over their immediate 
hearers; but who spoke wdth such commanding eloquence 
to the nation ? When it was known that Webster was 
to speak, is it any exaggeration to say that the Republic 
was one eager auditory ? Give me a name if ye can, 
for glory like this : never to have risen, but millions 
hung upon his lips ; never to have sat down, but 
millions were wiser men and better patriots. Webster's 
printed speeches were re-read, and put carefully away 
and committed. How many of his sentences, laden with 
noble truth and glowing patriotism, have become famil- 
iar as household words ! Plutarch informs us that so 
thoroughly were the priests instructed in the WTitings of 
Numa, that the law-giver, assured that they would be 
preserved in spirit and in letter, ordered them to be 
burned with his body. Such is the impression made 
upon the minds of his countrymen by the productions 
of Mr. Webster, that had all written record of them been 



15 



interred with his remains, every principle and precept 
could be collected from the memory of living men; and 
all his great orations, I doubt not, could be restored to 
print, word for word. 

His sentiments are not only engraven on the minds of 
his countrymen, but they blend themselves with the sur- 
face of the country itself Spots which the blood of our 
fathers ha¥e consecrated, this great master of eloquence 
has made classic. Even Bunker Hill, of hallowed mem- 
ory, has borrowed additional interest and renown from 
his transcendent powers of speech. They have given 
birth indeed to the noblest monument of that eventful 
day. Any country, any people could have erected the 
granite obelisk. Of his contemporaries, who but the 
great New England orator could have delivered such 
discourses. It is not intimated that Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment is not everything that could reasonably be asked. 
Lifting itself from that memorable summit, " rising over 
the land, and over the sea, and visible at their homes, to 
three hundred ^thousand citizens of Massachusetts," it is 
indeed a stupendous structure. And yet it is less impos- 
ing and majestic than the orations pronounced there by 
Mr. Webster. "Towering high above the column which 
our hands have builded, beheld, not by a single city, or 
a single state, ascends the colossal grandeur " of these 
Bublimer remembrancers. 

The influence of Mr. Webster's speeches was not lim- 
ited to this country. IH this connection permit one born 
under another government, and among a people at that 



16 



time prejudiced beyond belief, to say that my own ex- 
perience furnishes me with data, which from the good 
fortune of your birth, you would probably omit to take 
into the account. Happening to fall in with these great 
productions, I not only bowed in homage to the talents 
of the author, but immediately conceived respect, then 
admiration, and before I got through, enthusiasm and 
reverence, for the history, the great men, and the in- 
stitutions of America. I said to myself that in the 
wonderful attributes of this great orator, and the heroic 
virtues of his countrymen whom he celebrates, is more 
than realized, what in Berkeley, a century and a quarter 
ago, seemed an extravagant flight, even for poetry, that 
here should rise up, and here should be sung, 

" The good and great inspiring epic rage, 
The wisest heads and noblest hearts.'' 

Thus does it happen, that for the high privilege of 
American citizenship, for such a proud distinction, and 
crowning felicity, I am indebted to the sway of his liv- 
ing words, to whom in death, from the fullness of a swolen 
heart, I now make this poor acknowledgment. Plato 
thanked heaven that he was born in the same age with 
Socrates. What a heart should I have, if it did not over- 
flow with gratitude, that I have not only been thus far 
contemporary with the deceased, have experienced the 
divine luxury of his thought, and heard two orations from 
his lips, but that I am now entitled against the world to 
claim a share in his immense renown. 

" I'raise enough 
To fill th' ambition of a private man, 
That W^ebstek's language was his mother tongue, 
And Clay's great name compatriot with his own." 



ir 



I have spoken of my native Province as at that time 
prejudiced beyond belief, against whatever pertained to 
the neighboring Republic. I rejoice to do it justice. 
Such was the respect they had come to entertain for the 
citizen now deceased, that when in one of its villages 
the announcement was made that he was dead, the peo- 
ple gave expression to their feelings in a salute of an 
hundred guns from English artillery. 

Not only in the Hulseman letter, at the Plymouth 
dinner, and on the Greek question, but on numerous 
other occasions, Mr. Webster's resistless eloquence, de- 
fining the position, and speaking the sentiment of the 
American Republic, has fulmined over Europe, 

" To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne," 

Those who make it out so clearly to their own satis- 
faction that he was guilty of such astonishing apostacy, 
let them not fail to notice this. That his death breaks a 
spell of dread to Absoluteism. Tyrants rejoice that 
Webster has fallen ! 

A full survey of the public life and services of Mr. 
Webster, can be taken only by his biographer. Let 
those who assume such an enumeration, not omit to in- 
clude the following. That out of the treasury of his sin- 
gle intellect, he has paid another installment on the debt 
of civilization, we owe the mother Empire. It consists 
not alone in the light he has shed upon the sciences of 
international law, and civil polity. Virgil considered 
himself covered with glory, when he was called a pillar 
3 



18 



of* the Latin tongue ; and English scholars, in the fine 
enthusiasm, and high magnanimity of letters, will ac- 
knowledge with feelings of admiration and gratitude, 
that even to that gorgeous temple, whose base, and wdiose 
dome were the productions of a Shakspeare, the doric 
contributions of the great American orator have given 
additional strength, sublimity and grandeur. 

Cicero thought Socrates used such language as Jupiter 
would, had he talked in the Greek. The English of 
Webster suggests the same notion of majesty. And if 
Cicero had given us his idea of the fabled deity in the 
act and attitude of speaking, it is by no means certain 
that he would have invested him with a more imposing 
presence. Conceptions of this kind are furnished in po- 
etry, which have been things of joy to the scholars of 
many generations. But I question whether votaries of 
letters most familiar with the heathen Jove of Homer, 
the Trojan leader of Virgil, the royal Dane of Shak- 
speare, and the primitive great sire of Milton, ever had 
in their mind's eye, a figure which so impressed the 
heart, as when they gazed upon the solemn front, and 
eye sublime of our illustrious countryman. Not only 
have European masters in sculpture hung over his bust 
enamoured, as a model beyond even their finest ideal ; 
but persons of no culture whatever, equally strangers to 
his fame, and to the enthusiasm of poetry and art, have 
given involuntary utterance to the sentiment of the ad- 
miring Queen of Carthage, 

" Quern sese ore/erens ! " 



19 



These outward indications of power, without example 
in his own age, added immensely, as might be supposed 
to the grandeur of his spoken eloquence. Of other ora- 
tors, the audience made his present speech the guage of 
his intellect. And I suppose it often happened that Mr. 
Webster did his utmost ; but with that massive ampli- 
tude of brow before you, and that vision and faculty di- 
vine, it was impossible to believe it. Bring forward 
what he might, you still said, the greatest is behind. 
Make ever so great a conquest, the spectators reported : 

" Yet half his strength, he put not forth, but check'd 
His thunder in mid-volley," 

And when the historian, glorying in his theme, shall have 
recounted to the men of another age, the mighty feats of 
his genius, it needs must cap the climax of their wonder 
to be told ', that such was his superb exterior, and so vast 
in promise, that he left his contemporaries in doubt, had 
he been called to meet a crisis so much greater, or grap- 
ple with an adversary so much more formidable, whether 
he had it not in him, to have achieved in one single tri- 
umph, what would have eclipsed the sum of his others^ 

It would be very proper in the presence of so much 
aspiration for professional honor, to dwell at some length 
upon the character of the deceased as a lawyer. And in 
adequate hands what more noble theme for discourse. 
But an attempt at such an analysis of his mind, or such 
summing up of his attainments by any one who has not 
devoted to the law his twenty years of vigils, would 
amount in my esteem, to irreverent presumption. Let 



20 



us leave this part of the subject then, after expressing 
only what is in the mind of every educated man in the 
country. His published arguments at the bar, have 
never yet been spoken of as less than consummate mod- 
els of forensic discussion. And the proportion of his ad- 
mirers is not small, who insist that this is the theatre 
where the prowess of his mind achieved its greatest feats. 
As has been said by an old man eloquent, a patriarch of 
college presidents, respecting Hamilton : he strode 
through the cause with the club of Hercules, and left 
nothing living in his path. If you inquire who stands at 
the head of the profession in any given city or State, 
different persons will give you a different name ; where- 
as not only now in the generosity of funeral eulogium, 
but any time during the last third of his life, and that 
by universal acclaim, the first place at the Bar of the 
American Union was accorded to Webster. And when 
of all this assembly there remains not on earth the slight- 
est vestige of remembrance, posterity will marvel as we 
do now, at this amazing triumph of intellect ; to have 
won the palm which cost Pinckney and Wirt the sus- 
tained struggle of a life ; and yet at the same time, in 
the higher path of statesmanship, which they almost en- 
tirely avoided, to have clomb to equal pre-eminence ; 
and in addition to all this, and perhaps for the first time 
in the history of America, to have given a classic to the 
language. 

A glance still briefer at Mr. Webster's achievements in 
the field of diplomacy. iThey contributed very greatly 



21 



to extend his European flirae, and certainly rank among 
his highest claims to the gratitude of his own country. 
The announcement of his death will come home with 
great additional effect to Americans who are now travel- 
ling abroad ; for they have felt, as they tell us, that his 
name ever surrounded them as with a guard of protec- 
tion and of honor. His correspondence with the English 
Envoy in 1842, not only shed vast light upon the law of 
nations, and afford^a sublime illustration of the compass 
and divinity of human reason ; but they cleared up 
many difficulties between the United States and Eng- 
land, which at intervals for half a century, had threaten- 
ed to involve these countries in all the horrors of war. 
They were settled by this great son of peace, satisfacto- 
rily, and forever ; without war, and without dishonor. 
And it may be urged with justice, that the papers which 
at that time emanated from the Secretary of State, con- 
tributed greatly to inaugurate a new era in the inter- 
course of nations. They impressed upon the general 
heart of the world, what Richelieu utters in handing his 
weapon of war to his page : 

'' Take aioay the sword — 
States can be saved without it ! " 

It has come to be a very frequent remark, what a pity 
our greatest men cannot be President ; and surely there 
never has been more occasion for regret than in the case 
of Webster. What a superb piece of rhetoric would it 
have been, what a feast, what a banquet of reason, and 
with what a glow of patriotic pride would every Ameri- 



22 



can have perused his inaugural address. What annual 
messages would have illustrated the policy and enriched 
the literature of the country. What dignity, what 
strength, what splendor in his administration. The Pre- 
sidential chair would have borrowed lustre from the tal- 
ents and the fame of such an incumbent. For the first 
time since the line of Revolutionary Presidents, the 
hio;hest office in the nation would have been adorned 
with its highest statesmanship. The Union, the Consti- 
tution, Peace, and every great interest of peace, would 
have smiled secure under a ruler at once so wise, so mild, 
so firm. There are many persons present, differing from 
him on questions of public interest, who would not have 
voted for him; but there is no one in this audience, 
there is no one in this Republic who would not have con- 
templated with proud emotion, institutions which could 
first produce such a citizen, and then give him his place 
according to the specific gravity of nature. 

Such would have been the general feeling at home. 
While abroad, and among foreign powers, as it was said 
of Washington, it is not probable that any prince or po- 
tentate of his day, would have commanded more respect 
and consideration. Throned emperors and kings would 
have read in this grand embodiment, all the elements 
that mould up our conception of a consummate magis- 
trate : 

" And by these claim their greatness, not by blood.*' 

It is usual to say on such occasions that the Presidency 
could have added nothing to his fame. Such a reflec- 



23 



tlon may possibly be of some solace to afflicted feeling, 
but it certainly will not stand the test of logical analysis. 
INIr. Webster, it is true, was a more eminent man than 
any President of his day ; indeed the Secretaries of State 
for many years form a more distinguished line of States- 
men than the Presidents. Still the highest post in the 
government would have made even Mr. Webster's tal- 
ents more conspicuous. "Pyramids are pyramids in 
vales." Doubtless ; yet however great the structure, it 
is imposing in proportion to the elevation of its site. 
Mr. Webster, nevertheless, amassed a reputation on so 
huge a scale, that any such regrets on his account are 
almost unconscionable. Five million votes, nor fifty mil- 
lion votes, could have done for him what he did for him- 
self. The truth is, that regrets of this kind, and indeed 
this whole aggregate of sorrow, spreading the Common- 
wealth as with a pall, is not for the dead, but for the liv- 
ing. And I, the humblest of all my fellow-citizens, — 
lifted into notice but for an hour by this sad occasion, 
and soon to return as is my wont, to the pursuits of re- 
tirement — with no title to consideration, save as I utter 
the words of truth — the least of all priests in this vast 
service of the grave ; yet as such, possessing the ear of 
the congregation assembled — I assume to summon the 
American community into the forum of its own con- 
science. I arraign it before the bar of the world. I an- 
ticipate the verdict of posterity. Ye who have ears to 
hear, and hearts to understand, incline to what I say, for 
I speak no idle words. Hearken to the judgment of 
your children, and your children's children, to be affirmed 



24 



by every succeeding age. And this it is : That in with- 
holding from one who partook so largely of the spirit, 
and the Avisdom, and the patriotism of Washington, the 
highest power for good which the Constitution entrusts 
to a single citizen, — A duhj has not hcen performed, A 
ivorJc of patriotwn has not heen completed. 

Friends and fellow-citizens : If such thoug-hts afflict us 
with compunctious visitings, and full well I know they 
do, let us remember that they are of use only as they 
breed resolutions for the future. For the past, for the 
past, they are unavailing. Daniel Webster is no longer 
among the living. The glory of the forum, the chief of 
the Senate, the mighty minister, great man of language, 

" Farewell, a long farewell, to all thy greatness ! " 

That drama of vigorous heroism is closed. On a stage, 
not darkened, but rather of heightened splendor, the 
curtain has fallen. Not as the ordinary great ; nor yet 
as Socrates, like a philosopher ; but with the sublimer 
exit of a Christian, he has gone from our sight forever. 
Oh, if this were not the solemn fact — if you had but just 
awakened from a sleep — if you were assured that these 
impressions of death at Marshfield, of the ensign of the 
Republic everywhere in crape, of ten thousand men at 
a private funeral ; that these were not reality, but only 
the dismal fancies of a dream, — that instead of being in 
his grave, Daniel Webster was still at his post, as a faith- 
ful sentinel on the watch-towers of Liberty — if you 
could hear there in the darkness of the night his veteran 



25 



footstep — especially if you should ask as was our wont 
in a moment of fear, " Watchman, tvhat of the night ?" and 
your ear should suddenly be greeted with those grand 
old tones, so full, resonant and joyous — AWs well, alVs ivell^* 
— Oh ! how this whole auditory would start to its feet ; 
and what a burst of transport would shake this solid 
building to its base ! But alas, these tears we are shed- 
ding, they are not the tears of joy, but of grief. And 
.what event but the death of Webster, could have drawn 
from us so many. Had each of us lost his father, the 
stroke could hardly have fallen with more subduing effect. 
Why, here we touch the secret — We have lost the second 
Father of his country. God in heaven, be thou the father 
of an orphaned people ! 

When in July, two years ago, death removed an in- 
cumbent of the Executive, so strong in the confidence 
of his countrymen, you well remember how bitter and 
how universal was the sense of bereavement. It is no 
disparagement to say that his great office was worthily 
supplied by his immediate successor. What too often 
had been only an ingenious stroke of flattery, might 
have been quoted in this instance of accession, with hon- 
esty and truth : 

" Sol occubuit ; nox nulla secuta est" 

But now, ere yon moon had four times filled her horn, 

we are called upon to suffer the double eclipse of Clay 

and Webster. In lesser lights indeed the horizon is not 

wanting. And such is the tried prudence of the people 
4 



26 



themselves, and such, if they avail themselves of it, the 
reflected radiance of luminaries no longer seen, that I 
do not say they will stumble and fall. But alas, alas ! 
how long may We have to await the appearance again 
of two orbs of such magnitude and splendor, to fill our 
hearts with joy, and our country with glory ! 

I know indeed the last accents of his lips— ^" Istilllive;''* 
and I have marked with sensibility the eagerness of the 
nation to extract from them something to solace its smit- 
ten feelings. Already in the valley of the shadow of 
death, it was in his mind only, that the soul had not yet 
glided from the shore of its mortality. In that solemn 
instant it was farthest from him possible to indulge the 
thought of the ancient, " vivit enim, vivet que semper ^ Yet 
the bleeding heart of the nation, so lonesome and deso- 
late, is surely warranted in cherishing such a sentiment. 
All that was mortal of Daniel Webster, is indeed dead. 
In the presence of a great cloud of witnesses, it was com- 
mitted to the sacred soil of the Pilgrims. But his words, 
his works, his wisdom ; the influence of his example, pa- 
triotism and deeds — these were not so interred. Heaven 
vouchsafes to a few superior natures a life to come, even 
in this world. There are those who rule us from their 
urns. Yes, 

" Thou art mighty yet ! 
Thy spirit walks abroad." 

Walk ever abroad, illustrious shade ! Thy counsels and 
precepts are engraven on our memory j but oh, if in the 



27 



economy of God, it is allowed to exert a directer influ- 
ence — if patriots who die the death of the righteous are 
ever permitted to revisit their earthly seats — then, ever- 
venerated spirit, infuse into thy countrymen yet more of 
thy prudence, self-devotion, and wisdom ! 

All the editions I have seen of Mr. Webster's speeches 
have on the back of the volume a gold leaf figure of the 
Capitol at Washington. There is a fitness in this device. 
Consider how completely identified are his name and ef- 
forts with that great palace of the laws. With the House 
of Representatives, the Chamber of the Senate, the Su- 
preme Federal Judicatory, and with the wing in course 
of erection, as orator at the laying of its corner-stone. 
Then what an expansive spirit of patriotism pervades 
those volumes : a school of rhetoric for the nation, in- 
stinct with nationality. In this respect, indeed, they are 
but the counterpart of his own feelings and character* 
Party and sectional foes might whisper suspicion with 
their lips ; they might impugn his motives ; they 
might wound his honor ; and yet — who but one of his 
countrymen would credit it ; and who that is a country- 
man disputes it ? — it had come to be a piece of the Amer- 
ican heart to believe that Webster would see that the 
Republic suffered no harm. That not only her interests, 
but her honor and her fame would come out of the fiery 
ordeal, as he himself would say, without the smell of 
smokejupon her garments. You have all doubtless met 
the verses which represent a captain's son on board of a 
ship in a terriffic tempest. Veteran sailors are in tears 



28 



of despair, and marvelling at his calmness, they ask the 
boy, " Are you not afraid ? " The noble little fellow, a 
very picture of surprise, glancing at the stern, asks his 
interrogators, " Is not mi/ father at the helm ? " Such was 
the abiding faith of the nation in this more than Palin- 
urus of the State. Whatever might be the peril, how 
dark soever the heavens, 

" Though the strained mast should quiver as a reed," 

the people still asked, if you expressed alarm, 7* not Web- 
ster at the helm ? 

Such was the universal sense of his fidelity and patri- 
otism. Nor was it over estimated. Love of country, 
and of the whole country, was the ever present, and ever 
paramount passion of his being ; it penetrated, and per- 
vaded and engrossed it. Applying the entire energies 
of his robust, luminous, and comprehensive intellect, to 
the high ministries of its constitution, it was the great 
mission of his life to defend and expound it, to illustrate 
and hallow. His first entry into public life was in the 
service of the whole Union ; and the summons of death 
found him still in its harness. No sooner had his eye 
fallen on her constitution, than he folded it to his heart 
as the first love of his boyhood ; and the latest stroke of 
his pen ere it must be laid down forever, attests his loy- 
alty and devotion. And having indentified himself con- 
spicuously with every great interest at home, and more 
than any citizen of his time, enhanced her reputation 
abroad ; in age, as in manhood, and in youth, still earlier 
than the sun in toiling for her glory j having thus ex- 



29 

hausted his strength, his spirit, and his life, in the service 
of the country at large ; he bequeathed at his death, to 
every American citizen, to every several man, in one 
massive and sumptuous assemblage, the rich inheritance 
of his name, his works, his example and renown. 

I am afraid it is one of the solemn lessons of history 
that unto all states, as to men, it is appointed once to die. 
Certainly none now in existence gives more vigorous 
promise than that of England. And yet her eloquent 
historian has permitted himself to anticipate a time 
when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the 
midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch 
of London bridge, to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's. It 
is the most earnest prayer of every heart before me that 
the people may prove themselves so intelligent, virtuous 
and prudent, that the Capitol of the American Republic 
will stand forever. This, my friends, at least is sure j 
that while that great temple of Freedom does stand, it 
shall be as one vast Cenotaph to Webster. And as a 
sight of that hallowed dome, shall first recall to the be- 
holder the memory of Webster ; so shall come first to 
his lip, the epitaph now on the general heart of the na- 
tion : Well done, good and faithful servant. 



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